ICT, innovation, wages and labour productivity. New evidence from small local firms

ABSTRACTThis article analyses new co-innovative sources (ICTs, human capital and training, and new forms of work organisation) of labour productivity in small firms producing for local markets. Using 2009 survey data for a representative sample of 464 firms based in Girona (a province in the north-east of Spain) and using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) econometric estimation techniques, two main findings have emerged from the study. First, that mean wage is the main determinant of labour productivity. And second, unlike the evidence available for larger firms, co-innovation does not have a total effect on explaining small local firm’s labour productivity. Causal relationships between co-innovation and labour productivity have only been identified in the innovative small local firms, one quarter of the sample.  ABSTRACT This article analyses new co-innovative sources (ICTs, human capital and training, and new forms of work organisation) of labour productivity in small firms producing for local markets. Using 2009 survey data for a representative sample of 464 firms based in Girona (a province in the north-east of Spain) and using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) econometric estimation techniques, two main findings have emerged from the study. First, that mean wage is the main determinant of labour productivity. And second, unlike the evidence available for larger firms, co-innovation does not have a total effect on explaining small local firm’s labour productivity. Causal relationships between co-innovation and labour productivity have only been identified in the innovative small local firms, one quarter of the sample. RESUMEN Este artículo analiza las nuevas fuentes co-innovadoras (TIC, formación y nuevas formas de organización del empleo) de la productividad del trabajo en empresas pequeñas que producen para los mercados locales. Utilizando datos de una muestra representativa para 464 empresas localizadas en Girona (un provincia del norte de España) durante 2009, y a través de técnicas de estimación econométrica por mínimos cuadrados ordinarios, la investigación ha obtenido dos resultados principales. En primer lugar, que el salario es el principal determinante de la productividad del trabajo. En segundo lugar, y en contraposición con la evidencia hallada para las grandes empresas, en las pequeñas empresas con mercados locales la co-innovación no ejerce un efecto total sobre la productividad del trabajo. Únicamente se ha obtenido relación de causalidad directa entre la co-innovación y la productividad en las pequeñas empresas locales innovadoras, una cuarta parte de la muestra total. &nbsp

Préstamo de libros electrónicos BURJC

Presentación da Biblioteca da Universidade Rey Juan Carlos nas II Jornadas NUX que tiveron lugar en Santiago de Compostela os días 13 e 14 de Xuño de 201

R&D and productivity in the spanish´s manufacturing firms

ABSTRACT The Spanish R&D to GDP ratio is low compared to other leading economies during the last decade.  This paper uses data of a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990-2001 to investigate the relationship between labour productivity and R&D capital at firm level.  A Cobb-Douglas function including R&D intensity is estimating using the panel data with instrumental variables method.   The results indicate that a positive and significant role for the firm's own R&D capital is only found in firms located in  technology intensive sectors.  It also appears that some firm's characteristics (firm size and the integration of the firm in a corporate group) play a significant role in influencing private output

Encountering Otherness. Depth of Field: A collective approach to Africa / Conocer la alteridad. Depth of Field: una aproximación colectiva a África

The purpose of this article is to approach postcolonial African photography through the pictures of the Nigerian group DOF (Depth of Field), in terms of what has been called Trans-African Photography; a photography that brings down the borders of the African continent and denies the identitary aspects of “the African” as a Western construction. The pictures of this new generation keep no relation with such characteristics as the naïve, the primitive or the brute, all of them related to “the African” from the point of view of the West. On the contrary, they insert themselves into the global dialogue of the Postmodern Art. And by doing so, they break away from the omnipresent ethnocentrism in the arts. It is important to raise this topic in the academia in order to create legitimization for these artistic practices that question not only the art circle and its system but also the social construction of an imagery that is currently widespread in the Western Countries. The training of these photographers has taken place mostly in Europe. Therefore talking about the migratory flux of the art and its meanings becomes necessary as well. The pictures of DOF, rather than represent the Other, raise controversy about the pertinence of Africa being part of a globalised world distributes their artworks and, at the same time, relocates them away from their territory. This has caused a great split not only in the western imagery but also in more traditional-style African photographers such as J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere, Tam Fiofori, Jide Adeniyi-Jones y Sunmi Smart-Cole.El propósito de este artículo es realizar una aproximación a la fotografía postcolonial africana a través de la obra del grupo nigeriano DOF (Depth of Field). Se tratará en él lo que se denomina Fotografía Transafricana; una fotografía que rompe con los bordes del continente y que niega el carácter identitario que desde Occidente se ha utilizado para construir “lo africano” desde un punto de vista colonial. Las fotografías de esta nueva generación nada tienen que ver con lo naif, lo primitivo o lo rudo - características éstas asociadas a lo que podríamos etiquetar como “lo africano - occidental”, sino que se insertan en el diálogo global del arte posmoderno y rompen con el etnocentrismo imperante en las artes. Es importante tratar este tema desde el mundo académico para legitimar unas prácticas que cuestionan no sólo el círculo y el sistema del arte, sino también la construcción social de un imaginario que a día de hoy sigue imperante en el mundo Occidental. No hay que olvidar asimismo que una parte importante de la formación de estos fotógrafos se ha desarrollado en Occidente, por lo que es necesario hablar también de los flujos migratorios del arte y de sus significados. Las fotografías de DOF, además de tratar el tema del Otro, promueven el debate sobre la pertinencia de la entrada de África en un mundo globalizado desde el que distribuir sus obras de arte al mismo tiempo que las deslocaliza de su territorio. Esto ha causado una gran brecha no sólo en el imaginario occidental sino entre los fotógrafos africanos más tradicionales como es el caso de J.D. Okhai Ojeikere, Tam Fiofori, Jide Adeniyi-Jones y Sunmi Smart-Cole.</p

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Abstract We introduce a new graph model. In this model, vertices are points spread in a metric space and each vertex is assigned to a box in the space. Two vertices are connected by an edge if and only if its respective boxes contain the opposite vertex. We focus our study to the simplest case in which vertices are spread in a one dimensional euclidean metric space. We give both, a combinatorial and a simple intersection characterization of the model. Based on these representations, we determine graph families that contain the model (e. g., boxicity 2 graphs) and others that the new model contains (e. g., interval graphs, outerplanar) for which we construct representation algorithms

Señor : los rector, assignados, y cathedraticos de la Vniuersidad, y Estudio General de la ciudad de Huesca del Reyno de Aragon puestos a los reales pies de V.M. suplicando dicen ..

Tít. tomado de las primeras palabras del textoAl final del texto consta el año 1685Letra capital tip

Using Technology to Enhance a Project Management Course in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract There is little doubt that advances in technology have provided unprecedented opportunities to develop more effective learning platforms, with the aim of ultimately providing better student learning outcomes. However, technological innovations on their own may provide little more than improvements in quality and productivity over previously used methods. Technology, regardless of how advanced the technology is, should never be used as a substitute for good teaching practice, but as a means of enhancing existing good teaching practices. This paper discusses how, over a period of 4 years, technology has been embedded into a project management course within the United Arab Emirates in order to provide students with a more effective learning experience. The various technologies used in this example include videos of a case study project used in the course, a working example of the application software that was developed for the case study, audio recording of lectures and the construction of videos containing power point slides overlaid with previously recorded audio files

Hydrothermally stable, conformal, sulfated zirconia monolayer catalysts for glucose conversion to 5-HMF

The grafting and sulfation of zirconia conformal monolayers on SBA-15 to create mesoporous catalysts of tunable solid acid/base character is reported. Conformal zirconia and sulfated zirconia (SZ) materials exhibit both Brönsted and Lewis acidity, with the Brönsted/Lewis acid ratio increasing with film thickness and sulfate content. Grafted zirconia films also exhibit amphoteric character, whose Brönsted/Lewis acid site ratio increases with sulfate loading at the expense of base sites. Bilayer ZrO2/SBA-15 affords an ordered mesoporous material with a high acid site loading upon sulfation and excellent hydrothermal stability. Catalytic performance of SZ/SBA-15 was explored in the aqueous phase conversion of glucose to 5-HMF, delivering a 3-fold enhancement in 5-HMF productivity over nonporous SZ counterparts. The coexistence of accessible solid basic/Lewis acid and Brönsted acid sites in grafted SZ/SBA-15 promotes the respective isomerization of glucose to fructose and dehydration of reactively formed fructose to the desired 5-HMF platform chemical